"Thank you, Auntie Mobius. Hearing that just makes me even more certain—I'll definitely succeed!"
"..."
Mobius' aura turned cold and sharp. Seeing Kiana so brimming with confidence, she instead felt an uncontrollable surge of irritation and rejection.
Foolish. Utterly foolish.
Back in the Previous Era, Mobius had seen countless people just like Kiana—overflowing with confidence, firmly believing they were special, that they were capable of anything, that they were the protagonist of the world.
These people believed, without any reason, that what others could not accomplish, they themselves could. They had no basis for it. They simply clung stubbornly to blind faith in themselves. That was all.
And most of those fools, brimming with such misplaced confidence, had died on Mobius' operating table. They proved their stupidity well enough—and then perished, leaving behind little more than a set of barely useful data.
Just thinking about it made Mobius feel annoyed.
(Truly ignorant. People with only one life, yet unwilling to cherish it, betting their sole stake on probabilities so infinitesimal they don't even exist beyond a dozen decimal places. Face reality already—you are not Elias!)
In Mobius' eyes, Kiana's current confidence was no different from those people.
If it were anyone else, Mobius wouldn't bother. After all, those who sought death themselves could at least be turned into somewhat useful data on her operating table.
She had no reason to refuse test subjects who delivered themselves to her door.
But...
"You brat, stop calling me auntie! And I'm not performing Chimera surgery on you. If you die on my table, Elias will flip out on me! If you want to die, go slit your own throat."
Mobius shot Kiana a fierce glare.
If this little paramecium died, her favorite little lab rat would definitely be heartbroken—so she absolutely could not die!
Despite her cold exterior, Mobius had only mentioned those potions and experiments earlier to tease Kiana. But Chimera surgery? If it failed, Kiana would truly be finished.
When Mobius performed Chimera surgery on herself, she had failed tens of thousands of times, dying each time. Fortunately, she was a Shesha MANTIS capable of resurrection.
But the Kiana before her had no such ability.
"Klein, see her out."
"Yes, Doctor. Kiana, please leave."
"W-wait! Wait! I really am confident! Auntie Mobius, just hear me out!" Kiana hurriedly tried to grab the snake's sleeve—but faced with a virtual projection, she grasped nothing but air.
"...Compared to Chimera surgery, I think you need a brain replacement surgery more. And if you call me auntie again, I'll dissect you for real!" Mobius was clearly on the verge of losing her temper.
"Uh... then... Grandma Mobius?"
Kiana blinked and continued courting death. The title clearly came from Griseo—and now Mobius' forehead veins were bulging, her face turning completely dark.
"Heh~ It seems you really don't want to live. Fine, I'll grant your wish. But before that, I suppose I can hear your last words. Go on—where exactly does this so-called confidence of yours come from?"
Mobius narrowed her snake-like eyes, already considering which specimen jar to put this paramecium into. Still, seeing Kiana's insistence, she decided to listen.
Just where did this inexplicable confidence come from?
"O-okay... I think you've already noticed. I'm related by blood to the first Chimera MANTIS—Kevin Kaslana."
"I know. Even without your appearance or surname, the stupidity alone makes it obvious. But so what? Don't tell me you think that's enough."
"Of course not. Actually... I'm also genetically related to Elias and Durandal."
"Huh?" Mobius froze.
In truth, Mobius didn't know much about Kiana. Her identity as an artificial human was somewhat sensitive, so people rarely brought it up.
While it was already an open secret at St. Freya Academy, the later Flame-Chasers and the Herrschers of the Previous Era didn't actually know Kiana's origins.
"I was created by the Schicksal Overseer Otto Apocalypse, using the genes of the Herrscher of the Void—Elias—and Durandal." Kiana took a deep breath and revealed her secret.
"!!!"
Mobius' eyes widened in shock.
"Elias, Durandal, Kevin—these three either became Chimera MANTISes or possess the qualities to do so. And all of them have extraordinary connections to me."
"One gave me their bloodline, one gave me her original name, and the first gave me the chance at life—his love—and... the meaning of being human."
"They are all humanity's Chimeras. And I, who was born from their power, will definitely become a Chimera too!"
Kiana revealed a radiant and graceful smile worthy of the title "Goddess of the Moon." She clenched her right fist against her chest, like a noble knight who had inherited a sacred legacy.
"Oh, right—there's one more important reason."
"...What?"
"I'm incredibly lucky!"
Kiana placed her hands on her hips, smiling with a hint of pride.
The Current Era had ten parts of luck—Kiana alone possessed eight, while everyone else owed two!
What was a one percent chance? Even a one-in-a-thousand or one-in-ten-thousand chance—she'd still hit it!
Don't ask why. Every time she rolled gacha, a single ten-pull would max out a character. She could only ever pull five-star characters—never four-stars no matter how hard she tried. A god-tier luck monster!
The only person in the world who could rival Kiana in luck was probably Pardofelis.
Mobius: "???"
The snake fell completely silent.
What kind of absurd conditions were these?!
For the first time, Mobius genuinely couldn't find a reason why Kiana's Chimera surgery would fail.
Her brain stalled. As she looked at Kiana, a term she had once read in a Shenzhou novel from Danzhu suddenly surfaced in her mind—
"The Child of Fortune."
Durandal granted Kiana the Schariac and Kaslana stigmata. Kevin gave her the Meta-Morph factor contained within Chimera genes. And Elias... gave Kiana the constitution of a second vessel of Finality!
If one were to ask who in this world has the potential to rival Elias before he became a dual Pseudo God of Imaginary and Quantum, then without a doubt—that person would be Kiana.
Because she truly possesses the qualifications to become a Chimera.
And she also has the physique to contain all Authorities and ascend to Finality!
Putting it all together—both body and method perfected. A textbook "Child of Fortune" of the Current Era!
"Hehe, so Doctor, you can perform the Chimera surgery on me now, right? I can't wait~"
Kiana very consciously lay down on the operating table, blinking her clear blue eyes at Mobius.
"Hmph... give me half an hour!"
Mobius snorted softly and ended the projection, immediately rushing back from Anti-Entropy. This once-in-ten-thousand-years ultra-rare lab rat—she absolutely could not miss it!!
...
After taking Anti-Entropy's supersonic rocket back to St. Freya Academy, Mobius dashed straight into her laboratory.
"D-Doctor, why are you smaller again?"
"It's nothing! The rocket accidentally exploded just now—I died once, that's all! Is that girl ready? Is the Chimera surgery equipment prepared?"
"Yes, everything is ready."
Klein looked at Mobius—who had once again turned into a little girl—with a complicated expression. She couldn't help but recall that when Mobius first arrived at St. Freya Academy, quite a few Valkyries had mistaken her shrunken form for Elias' child.
At the same time, Kiana—who had fallen asleep waiting on the operating table—woke up at the commotion and patted her chest, signaling she was ready.
"No time to waste. We begin now!"
Excitement filled Mobius' snake-like eyes. She first conducted a thorough full-body examination on Kiana, and soon her eyes lit up like glowing bulbs.
What a perfect body.
If Kiana weren't an ally, Mobius felt she wouldn't be able to resist dissecting her for research.
Mobius licked her lips, then swiftly began extracting and integrating Honkai Beast genes to formulate Kiana's Chimera Meta-Morph genome.
Although she had destroyed the old data,
With over ten thousand Chimera surgeries performed on herself across fifty thousand years, the entire procedure was already engraved into her memory and instincts.
Back in the Previous Era, Chimera surgery required cooperation between MEI and Prometheus. Now, Mobius alone could perform it.
However...
"Klein, go fetch these."
Mobius handed Klein a list.
"Doctor, these are—!"
"Hmph~ No matter how high this girl's success rate is, I still need to prepare for absolute certainty. At the very least, she must not die. Otherwise, if my little lab rat gets angry, the world might be destroyed."
What she asked Klein to bring were safeguards.
They were precious devices Mobius had once deemed wasteful and didn't use during her own Chimera surgeries—tools that could preserve life even if the procedure failed.
Mobius glanced sideways at Kiana, who was lying obediently on the operating table. No matter what, she would reduce the risk to the absolute minimum.
"Alright, everything's ready—let's begin!"
"Ow!"
Mobius took out a syringe filled with anesthetic and, without mercy, stabbed it straight into Kiana's butt. Then, a massive amount of Honkai Beast material was extracted, its genes integrated.
Finally, following the optimal formula Mobius had refined over fifty thousand years, it automatically formed into a Chimera genome.
Kiana also possessed both the Kaslana and Schariac stigmata.
But Durandal had already proven that awakening the Meta-Morph factor through internal stigmata trials could indeed grant ultimate artificial cascade—
Yet it would lack the Chimera's "devouring" ability.
So the standard method was still necessary.
"You brat—after calling me auntie and grandma earlier, tell me—where do you want this injection?"
Mobius tossed the Chimera genome in her hand. All that remained was to inject it into Kiana's body—the little paramecium would then begin her transformation.
But the thick needle tip made Kiana, who feared injections, tremble all over. She shut her eyes tightly and shakily extended her left hand.
"Alright, it's done."
"Huh? It doesn't hurt?"
Since she felt nothing at all, Kiana opened her eyes in surprise, even marveling at how effective the anesthetic was—only to see Mobius wearing a wicked villain's grin.
"Got you. Here comes the real one!"
"Awooo!!"
The scariest part of injections wasn't the pain—it was watching the needle pierce your flesh. Tricked into opening her eyes, Kiana immediately saw the thick needle stabbing into her body.
Her entire being instantly bristled.
"It hurts, it hurts! Waaaah~!"
"Alright, now you just absorb Honkai energy and wait for the results. I'm really curious what kind of Chimera you'll become."
"Huh? That's it? That simple?"
"Simple? Heh~ If you'd prefer, I can slice you open with a scalpel and stuff tens of thousands of Honkai Beast gene samples into your body one by one."
"Uh... no thanks, this is good!" Kiana shook her head frantically, then obediently began absorbing the liquid Honkai energy stored in Mobius' lab.
Though the process seemed simple, it was in fact unimaginably complex.
For one, just compiling tens of thousands of Honkai Beast genes into a single genome—only Mobius and MEI in this world could achieve that.
And in fifty thousand years, only Elias and Kevin had ever been capable of bearing such a Chimera genome.
But now—on this very night—
A new Chimera MANTIS was about to be born!
And thanks to Mobius' countless optimizations over time, the evolution process no longer required much waiting.
Boom—!!!
With the explosive compression of high-density Honkai energy, Kiana's presence surged to a terrifying level. Tens of thousands of feral genes roared within her body.
To Mobius' perception, tens of thousands of completely different Honkai life signatures were merging, sublimating, and evolving within the girl before her.
"Yes! Yes! That's it!"
Mobius trembled with excitement. She hadn't expected to witness a miracle like the one from fifty thousand years ago once more.
"So this is Chimera... There are so many... wills of Honkai Beasts... inside the genes... I... I can't hold on... Auntie Mobius... what should I do now?!"
Kiana's pupils dilated as she clutched herself. Her body had already begun manifesting Honkai Beast traits—cat ears, a dragon tail, beast claws, and more.
"Exactly as expected. Leave it to—ah, to me. Klein, quickly—bring me the highest-purity Schariac Holy Blood!"